Well, it's been about a week and I seem to have found some time to write during this period. Midterms haven't been so bad thus far, but I'm not quite done with them and I've got some of my harder ones coming up soon. (Mutters obscenities about 10 week courses… they just don't give you a break!) Anyway, I'm so happy to have 41 reviews! (Does a happy dance) I love getting reviews and so another huge THANK YOU to everyone! It's been my goal for the longest time to get over 100 reviews (or just an even hundred) so we'll see what happens with this one, eh?

Anyhoo, standard disclaimers still apply, I don't own JN, and please don't sue. Now onwards and upwards!

To Cross the Rubicon
By: pottergal

Chapter Six: It Starts…

Cindy sat at her desk in the empty classroom, twisting her hands around one of the pieces of cloth absently. She'd been the first one out of her costume, as Libby and Natesa were giggling about something Nick had said, and so she'd gone to set the classroom in order. No one had appeared by the time she'd finished, so she'd sat down, suddenly forced to struggle with the rush of strange emotions she'd felt ever since the conclusion of the dance.

She felt anxious and jittery and she wasn't quite sure what else, as there were so many intertwined feelings that she could barely begin to make heads or tails of them all. She wanted to run skipping down the halls from the sheer elation of actually winning, and yet… at the same time she wanted to apologize for making Jimmy look so… so miserable.

Where that particular feeling had come from, she could only wonder. She rarely felt guilty for upsetting him with her teasing, and once she'd even made him run from the room, screaming in anger and frustration. Of course she'd apologized to him afterwards, but she certainly hadn't felt bad over the whole thing. Not like this…

Why do I feel like my life suddenly depends on Neutron's stupid emotional state? she thought despondently, sighing faintly as she looked out the window at the late afternoon sky. The world outside had turned a beautiful red-orange, which had slowly seeped into the room and cast it in a surreal light.

Cindy stood slowly and glided towards the nearest window, her fingers finding the latch easily and pushing it open. A cool breeze rewarded her for her efforts and worked to sap some of the lingering sandalwood smell. The incense had been nice, Cindy thought, but a little strong when left to burn as long as it had. It had been nearly overpowering during their performance, and the only reason she'd been able to keep her feet was from the amount of time she'd spent practicing and drilling in the steps.

The sound of a key in the lock made her spin in surprise and she knocked a craft supplies jar from the countertop in the process. She tried to catch it before it fell as well as see the person who'd entered, and wound up failing at both. She grimaced when the jar hit the ground and shattered, spilling buttons and bits of string all over the floor.

"Cindy?"

She froze at the sound of his voice, her heart nearly stopping and her eyes widening. She straightened slowly, her gaze trailing across the floor to his sneakers, which were hesitantly moving towards her. Why he suddenly had this kind of effect on her she longed to know; she never got nervous around Jimmy. Never. She just wasn't supposed to! With Jimmy, she turned flippant and cocky, and they argued their brains out. Nick was the only one who made her stutter like an idiot.

"Are you… all right? What broke?" he asked as he stopped a few feet from her, and she let her eyes travel upwards to his face. Her breath caught when their eyes met, the intense sapphire blue threatening to down what was left of her senses…

"I'm fine," she snapped, or tried to anyway. It came out more as a weak protest than anything. "I just need to go find a broom and dustpan because I knocked over one of the craft jars."

"Oh," he said and she watched as a small frown creased his brow. "Um, Cindy…"

"Yeah?"

"I think… I think I owe you an apology," he started and it was her turn to frown lightly when he looked down at his feet. "I know I was being rude to you this afternoon, and I'm sorry," he said, rushing the end slightly. "I was just upset, because… well…" She watched him draw a deep breath. "Your project-"

"You don't have to say it," she said, placing a finger to his lips and cutting him off. She ignored his look of surprise and part of her was marveling at her audacity. Where'd she suddenly get the courage to be so bold?

"This bet ended in a draw, all right? I think both of us really pulled out all the stops this time, and as much as I hate to admit it, your panorama movie experience was probably the coolest thing you've done." She drew back and watched him smile slowly, cursing herself as butterflies beat in her stomach.

"So why did you come in here?" she asked as she moved to Miss Fowl's closet, and could almost sense Jimmy shrug.

"Well, it's probably nothing," he said as she fished the broom and the dustpan from the back of the closet. "You… you didn't… um…" He was looking at his feet again and Cindy felt her grip tighten on the broom handle. "During your performance… you didn't… feel anything weird, did you?"

Cindy froze for the second time, and watched his gaze slowly work its way up to her face. He blinked when he caught sight of her expression and he took a small step in her direction.

"You did," he whispered and she shrugged slightly.

"If nearly collapsing from the smell of incense counts as weird, then yes," she said, meaning to stride over to the mess she made, but finding it very hard to lift her feet. "I'm never going to buy that brand ever again."

"So you think it was the incense too," he said, a clear note of relief present in his voice. "That's why I'm here actually. I wanted a sample to analyze back at the lab, to see if it contained any chemicals that would cause…" He trailed off and Cindy felt the experience rushing back.

There were no words that could describe that… that pull she'd felt from deep within her. She'd glanced up at Jimmy halfway through the dance to find him staring at her, but it wasn't any normal look. She'd recognized it easily: it was the one he normally wore when he saw something truly amazing, like a star gone supernova or something. The sheer concentration and intensity behind his gaze had made her warm from the inside out, and suddenly… all that had mattered was him and his reaction.

I couldn't look away, I couldn't think straight... I felt like I was drowning in his gaze, Cindy recalled, a small shiver running through her. It sure hadn't been normal, whatever it had been.

"Take it, analyze it, and tell me what you find," Cindy said at last, gesturing towards the trash bin. "I threw the ashes in there, and I have the half-burnt stick in my backpack." She went and retrieved it for him, and he took it carefully. "I want to know if it was this stupid incense that caused… well, whatever it was."

"I should have the analysis done by tomorrow morning," Jimmy said as he placed the remains in a small, sealable plastic bag. "And if I do manage to isolate a suspicious element, I'll bring something to neutralize it to school tomorrow. But hopefully it'll just wear off by then."

"Yeah, hopefully," Cindy said with a nervous laugh as she began to sweep up the remains of the jar. "See you tomorrow then?"

"First thing in the morning," he said over his shoulder as he headed out the door.

"Oh, and Jimmy?"

"Yeah?"

"Where'd you find the keys to get in here?" she asked, mildly curious, and he turned back to her. A rather mischievous smile lit up his face and he proffered a large ring of keys.

"They're the janitors. I should probably put them back on his belt before he wakes up," he said before giving her a small wave and leaving. Cindy shook her head slightly, trying to ignore the mixed feelings that rose within her as he left. She felt both relieved and upset… like she wanted him to stay as much as she wanted him to leave.

She sighed a little as she sat back against the counter, mulling over that thought. How could someone want two opposite things at the same time? Sure, she wanted him to leave; who wouldn't? He was a pain in the neck half the time and his ego could certainly use a good popping (which she tried to do on a daily basis), but still…

Okay, so maybe she didn't hate Jimmy as much as she claimed. And so maybe, when she was absolutely certain that no one was within a twenty mile radius, she could admit that maybe she even sort of liked him. But it was only a little! And it was only when he wasn't going around hating her for picking on him, which was possibly most of the time…

But just because she could kind of admit it from time to time didn't mean she was going to start wearing it on her sleeve for everyone to see. Sure, they had agreed to try and be friends, but knowing him, he probably hadn't given much thought to the extent of her feelings. He probably didn't realize just how deep they went… and chances were he didn't want to know. Maybe all those times they'd almost kissed, he'd just felt obligated, or something. Like he was too nice to just say that he didn't want to kiss her…

He's so timid with girls, she thought somewhat angrily as she went back to sweeping, her mind jumping suddenly to Betty and April. He only likes Betty because she's gorgeous and as for April... it's because she showed interest in him.

Cindy felt a small pang as she stared down at the pile she'd created, her forehead coming to rest against the smooth wood of the broom handle. Sure, she hadn't shown interest like April had, though she had made her jealousy blatantly obvious. And besides, she couldn't just go around hugging him. He'd probably flip out and hate her.

Why couldn't they have a normal, friendly relationship for once? It seemed no matter how hard they tried, it never worked. That contract she'd drawn up had lasted about five minutes, marking possibly the shortest amount of time that they'd gotten along. They always went back to arguing and picking at each other; it never failed. It was like they were stuck in some vicious cycle that neither had the power nor the courage to break.

It's like we're scared of what might happen if we didn't fight, she thought as she swept the mess into the dustpan. It's strange, uncharted territory, and instead of going and exploring, we stay behind the boundaries where we know it's safe.

But she as much as she was getting tired of staying where it was safe, she knew that it would take a miracle to redraw those lines.

Old habits die hard...

Jimmy turned the last corner on the road leading to school, his mind too preoccupied to appreciate the changes he'd made to his hovercraft. The turning was a good deal smoother and he'd developed a new stabilizing system that would help prevent the risk of losing control and flipping over, and as much as he'd wanted to enjoy the test run, he was much more concerned about the incident from the previous day.

I wonder what Cindy is going to say when I tell her I couldn't find anything, he thought, grimacing slightly before pulling into a parking place and setting the hovercraft down gently.

"Gas planets, I was so sure it was the incense!" he muttered as he hopped out, his expression set in a perplexed frown. He absently turned on the alarm system before heading to the entrance of the school, wondering if everyone was already there.

I came up with nothing out of the ordinary, and none of the chemicals produced the sort of neural responses that I experienced, he thought, his frown deepening. He'd run every test he could come up with, from testing the burnt ashes to testing the smoke, and he'd even burned several small samples to see if they affected him as they had in class. Naturally they hadn't.

"Hey, Jimmy!"

He looked up at the sound of his name to find Carl and Sheen standing at the base of the steps and he smiled weakly in greeting.

"You sure don't look too good," Sheen said as he approached, and Carl looked at him in worry.

"You're not sick, are you? If so, get away! I'm allergic!" the redhead exclaimed, thrusting Sheen in front of him for protection.

"Hey, I don't want it either! Let me go!" Sheen yelled, struggling to back away from Jimmy and failing.

"Guys, I'm not sick!" he said with an eye roll, his tone mildly irritated, and Sheen and Carl instantly relaxed, halting their attempts to stay away. "I'm just tired. I was up late again last night, only I was analyzing that incense instead of tinkering with the Virtua Chef."

"Oh," Carl said. "So did you find what you were looking for?"

Jimmy shook his head, sighing a little and looking away in frustration. "No," he said sullenly, his hands tightening around his backpack straps. "I performed every test I could possibly think of, and yet I found nothing to explain the sort of responses that their dance generated. I guess I'm lucky that Cindy offered to call the bet a draw…"

"So that's why you're not bald this morning," Sheen said, poking at Jimmy's cowlick, while Carl looked slightly crestfallen.

"And I was looking forward to helping you pick out hats to wear too…" he said, kicking his foot against the ground forlornly, and Jimmy stared at him in disbelief.

"You mean you wanted me to lose?"

"No!" Carl exclaimed quickly. "I was just thinking, is all, and I figured that if you somehow did lose and had to shave your head, I wouldn't have minded helping you pick out something to wear until it grew back."

Jimmy continued to stare, his mind mulling over all the possible things to say in response, searching for something appropriate, but he was spared of the burden when a familiar voice spoke up, effectively ending their conversation.

"If it isn't Nerdtron and his two hapless sidekicks," it said, and Jimmy turned to see Cindy and Libby hopping off the bus while sharing a knowing look.

"We aren't hapless!" Sheen exclaimed, outraged for a split second, and then poked Jimmy in the arm.

"Are we?"

Jimmy ignored him and took a step towards the two newcomers, crossing his arms over his chest angrily. "That's a fine way to greet someone who's been working all night on your behalf!"

"No one told you to, Neutron," Cindy said breezily, slowly turning her gaze to look at him. "I may've asked you about the incense, but I never…"

Jimmy felt his anger waver slightly when she finally looked at him, as her sudden reaction was not the one he'd been expecting. Her eyes went wide with an unidentifiable emotion and her mouth fell open a little. She stopped dead in her tracks and earned herself a look of surprise from Libby.

"Cindy? What's wrong?" she asked, and Jimmy blinked when the blond girl collapsed, landing on her behind with a faint thump. Her gaze was still locked onto him, though her eyes had glazed over, and he shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably. What was going on?

"Are you feeling all right?" Libby tried again, bending over slightly and tilting her head to one side in curiosity. "Should I take you to the nurse or something?"

Libby looked up at them helplessly when Cindy didn't respond, and against his better judgment, Jimmy edged closer, absently noting that Carl and Sheen were trailing after him as poor backup. He could hear Carl whimpering in fear, as though he was expecting Cindy to explode at any minute, and Sheen was staring at the girl with eerie fascination.

"Uh, Cindy?" Jimmy tried, and Libby waved a hand in front of Cindy's face without any reaction. She didn't even blink, which should've been a normal reflex, one that few could stop from occurring.

"Can you… can you hear me?" he asked, snapping his fingers right in front of her nose, and everyone jumped backwards when she jerked slightly, her eyes finally focusing.

"Of course I can hear you," she said Jimmy wrestled with himself before slowly extending a hand to help her up.

"What happened?" Libby asked as Cindy blinked at Jimmy's hand for a moment. "One minute you were walking and the next you were on the ground. You didn't eat anything funny for breakfast this morning, did you?"

"I'm fine," she said as she slipped her hand into his and her gaze moved up to his face. "I'm just…" Jimmy frowned as she smiled… no, beamed up at him.

"I'm just so happy to see you, Jimmy!" she exclaimed, stunning him so thoroughly that he was completely unprepared when she threw herself into his arms. The force of her embrace knocked them to the ground, where he lay, staring up at the sky with wide eyes, and part of him was dimly aware that Cindy was nuzzling his shoulder.

It took a few moments before the full meaning behind her actions sank in, and Jimmy's expression quickly became one of utmost horror and fear.

"Cindy!" he choked out, as her arms had become dangerously tight around his neck. "What're you doing!"

"Hm?" she murmured before pushing herself off him slightly. "Oh! Oh no, I'm so sorry, Jimmy!" she exclaimed as she scrambled off him and pulled him to his feet. "I didn't realize that I'd knocked you to the ground… and look! You're all dusty now… I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen!"

"Cindy, what has gotten into you?" Libby asked, her eyes wide with shock, and it wasn't long before her expression melted to slight anger.

"All right, Jimmy," she said, planting her hands on her hips. "What kind of experiment went wrong and thus has seriously messed up my best friend?"

"I didn't do anything!" he shouted, panic filling him as he felt Cindy wind her arms around his left one. He tried to edge away, but earned himself a giggle from Cindy, and she latched onto him. "I swear! I have no idea why she's acting like this!" he continued, trying unsuccessfully to detach himself from her death grip.

"Come on, Jimmy," Sheen scoffed as he got his left arm free, only to have Cindy grab onto his right, which he'd been using to hold her off. "You must've done something. There's no other logical explanation for it."

"If anyone did anything, it's Cindy!" he exclaimed, earning a puzzled look from Libby. "She's the one who asked me to analyze that incense because she said she felt something funny during your dance!"

"But all of us were exposed to it, Jimmy, and none of us feel like hugging you," Libby said as Jimmy worked his right arm free, only to have Cindy latch her arms around his shoulders, a dreamy smile present on her face. "Besides, hasn't Carl been using that stuff for weeks now?" she reasoned and Sheen nodded.

"Yeah, Jimmy, you don't see Carl glomming onto you, do you?" he said and if Jimmy hadn't been so preoccupied with gaining his freedom from Cindy, he would've glared at them.

"If you're so smart, you figure it out!" Jimmy snapped, finding it next to impossible to maneuver in the hold Cindy had on him. She was acting like a bind, pinning his arms to his sides and rendering his hands useless. "And let me ask you, why in the name of Heisenberg would I want Cindy hugging me!"

"Maybe he turned himself into a Cindy magnet," Carl suggested and Jimmy saw that the three of them were huddled together a few feet away.

"Yeah, that way he wouldn't be lying when he said that he hadn't done anything to Cindy!" Sheen added and Jimmy growled in frustration.

"Oh, for cryin' in mud! WEREN'T YOU LISTENING TO ME?"

"The proof still stands, Jimmy," Libby said calmly, ignoring the fact that Carl and Sheen were cowering behind her. "There is something seriously wrong with Cindy, and since you're the only one who seems to cause these sorts of things, we have no other choice but to assume that it's your fault."

"Oh yeah, that's just great," he said darkly, trying to worm his way out of Cindy's vice-like grip as his fingers were starting to go numb from the amount of pressure she was applying to his upper arms. "Blame me! You always do! There couldn't be any other possible explanation!"

"Uh, Jimmy? Just to be fair," Sheen began, poking his head out from behind Libby. "Things usually are your fault, so we kind of have the right to blame you."

"I DON'T CARE!" he shouted and Sheen ducked back behind Libby, who blinked slightly at his outburst. "Look at the facts, please! Cindy and I CAN'T STAND each other, right? So WHY would either of us want to turn her into a… a…"

"A Jimmy-hugging monster?" Sheen suggested.

"Exactly!" he exclaimed as Cindy let out a dreamy sigh, and her grip tightened painfully.

"Hey, Jim? This is just a thought, but…" Carl began, blinking at him worriedly from behind Libby. "What if this is all just an elaborate hoax created by Cindy and Libby over a late night conversation when the fatigue had gone to their brains and they wanted to find the best possible way to humiliate you?" Carl suggested timidly, and Libby spun angrily to face him.

"And WHY would I put my best friend through this kind of embarrassment? I don't think you could pay her enough to hug Jimmy!" Libby shouted and Carl whimpered before dropping to all fours and covering his head with his hands.

"Don't hurt me, please!"

He has a point... As Libby began chewing out Carl, Jimmy looked down at the girl currently resting her head happily against his chest. And I wouldn't put it past the two of them to do something like this. Maybe that's what that look was for this morning...

"Uh, Cindy, if really is just a hoax, could you please call it off now? Before things get any worse?" he asked quietly and she looked up at him, a small confused frown on her face.

"What are you talking about, Jimmy? Why on earth would I play a joke on you?" He had to give her credit, she certainly did sound sincere. She must've been practicing to pull off the act she was putting on; he couldn't see her being able to do this instantaneously.

"Because that's what you do?" he said, a note of disbelief present in his voice. "You live to torment me, playing as many humiliating pranks on me as possible, right?" She blinked at that, and her eyes widened in surprise.

"I could never play pranks on you, Jimmy," she said, the strange note to her voice almost making him wonder if it wasn't a hoax after all and that some bizarre change had occurred. "You know why…"

"Cindy, absolutely nothing has stopped you before," he reasoned as she trailed off, her expression becoming unreadable. "You've embarrassed me countless times in the past, and quite frankly, Carl's suggestion is possibly the only logical explanation for your highly erratic behavior."

"You think this is a joke? That what I feel is a… a hoax?" she asked softly, and Jimmy stiffened at the hurt tone to her voice. It sounded like she was…

Oh no...!

"Cindy, please don't cry," he said, trying to soothe her while glancing around nervously. "I didn't mean to upset you; I was merely telling the truth!"

"I don't know what you think is the truth, mister, but I could never, ever, be horrible to you! Never in a million years!"

"Uh, Cindy? Can we take a reality check here, please?" Libby asked, frowning, and Jimmy realized that the three of them were watching him and Cindy very closely. "You live to torment Jimmy, remember? I even helped you work out your frustrations on that life-sized Neutron punching bag of yours?"

Wha...? Jimmy glanced at Libby sharply, but she was focused on Cindy. He opened his mouth to ask her about it when Cindy's grip, which had been loosening up until Libby had spoken, tightened, and he bit his lip to keep from crying out.

She really needs to lay off the Tae Kwan Do, or whatever it is she does to make herself this strong...

"That's impossible!" Cindy exclaimed, looking extremely hurt, and Libby glanced at Jimmy nervously. "Let me ask you this, Miss Folfax: how could I be mean to him when I love him?"

Jimmy froze at that, part of him unable to comprehend Cindy's sentence and part of him screaming in denial.

Nope, no way. I didn't just hear that.

His mind kept running in loops over what she'd said and it was absolutely refusing to make sense of it. He could feel a muscle in his cheek twitch slightly as Cindy rested her head against his chest again, and he was dimly aware of the shocked gasps from Libby, Sheen, and Carl. He barely registered the fact that Cindy had looked back up at him, a happy smile on her face.

"I could never hurt you, Jimmy," she said softly, shyly, and his mind slowly began to unthaw, struggling to work around the foreign data that she'd supplied him with. "You understand now?"

"Did you just say… what I think you said?" he heard himself asking, and he dimly recorded her blink.

"You want me to repeat myself?" he heard her say with a small giggle, and she leaned in so that her lips were right by his ear. He tried to pull away, but his body was still frozen, locked into a stiff, standing position.

"I love you, James Isaac Neutron," she whispered before kissing his ear gently.

Fatal system's error!

That was the last straw for Jimmy's poor brain, who couldn't take the sensory overload that it had just experienced. Cindy saying the impossible, and twice! The odds of that happening were easily… were easily…

Fatal system's error!

She'd kissed him! Oh jumping Jupiter, she'd actually kissed him! Sure, they might've accidentally hugged once or twice, and they had come close to kissing a few times, but those were accidents. They were! The only time he'd meant to kiss her was in that crazy dream of Carl's, and never in a million tropical or sidereal years would he have predicted that she might kiss him! It wasn't Cindy! Cindy didn't go around kissing him. The odds of that were… the odds were…

Reboot!

Blind panic was rising within Jimmy, a giant tidal wave of emotion that rendered all of his superior logic completely useless. He felt the world spin around him and watched as it became a huge swirl of blues and greens and grays, his mind trying desperately to fight back against the numbing. The odds of Cindy kissing him were… the odds of her publicly announcing her love for him… kissing him… odds… love…

Reboot, REBOOT!

And so Jimmy did the only thing he could've possibly done in his situation, given that his arms were bound by a painful death grip and he had no way of breaking free.

He fainted.

"Jimmy!"

"Oh cool, she broke him! I can see smoke coming from his ears!"

"That's dust, Sheen! They fell again!"

"She killed him! Cindy just killed Jimmy!"

"Get a grip, Carl! He just collapsed!"

"Jimmy, speak to me! Oh, come on, help me! We've got to get him to the nurse!"

I know, I know, another long one! But it was so much fun to write that I just couldn't bring myself to stop. Now I know what most of you are probably thinking: shameless rip off of the Valentine episode, right? Well, let me tell you that though the premise may be similar, I thought it would be funny if it was Cindy chasing Jimmy instead of the other way around. And the cause of this occurrence may or may not surprise you… Also, I've never seen the Valentine episode, and I feel extremely deprived, so any similarities from here on out are purely coincidental.

So anyway, what do you think has happened to Cindy? And how are they going to fix the problem? Stay tuned for the next chapter!